Both Health and Human Needs and Public Protection and Judiciary met last night and overlapped a bit, so here’s what I could catch!
HEALTH AND HUMAN NEEDS
They approved 2 affordable housing projects and new CCS providers before they got to the budget.
OPERATING BUDGET – PUBLIC TESTIMONY
This is a gross oversimplification of some very eloquent testimony, so my apologies to the speakers.
- Nici Hawkins – Beacon Staff said there were 344 people at Beacon record on a 70 degree day and they hit a new record this year. If they don’t get additional funding they may have to close one day a week.
- Andy Stephani, Meriter ER – Tetified about Detox and the impact it closing would have on their Emergency Room. Chair Wegleitner asked if they considered a financial contribtion to the service. He was not aware of any such discussion.
- Laura Gutknecht – Resident at YWCA since 2012, speaking against 4% reduction to budget to nonprofits.
- Bartho Caponi – UW Hopsital spoke about involuntary Detox services, says Detox is. a better fit for involuntary patients than the busy ER because they will get better services. They are medically ill, deserve better care and attention and sometime Detox is a better fit.
- Paul Seaman – member of Moses – supports removing unused positions in the sheriff’s budget to fund the services. He’s not trying to weaken the sheriff’s office, support services to keep people out of the jail by meeting basic needs and stable housing and detox services
- Shannon Barry – Executive Director of DAIS (Domestic Abuse Intervention Services) – in support of amendment 1, spoke to how reductions will impact their programs particlarly service lines, hotel nights and advocacy efforts on behalf of clients. They have avoided layoffs due to attrition so far, but can’t continue to do that.
- Kyle Martin – St. Mary’s Medical Director in Emergency Room also testified for Detox funding for involuntary patients. Says there are better skill sets at Tellurian, EDs are too busy and people don’t get care they need. Also not aware of discussions to have the hospital help pay for these services.
- Scott Strong – RISE – In support of restoring 4% cut to agencies. Concerned about erosion of the safety net. It’s a collective impact across all the agencies for the families impacted. Even with restoring the 4% additional cut, it’s still a hit because costs continue to increase and they are not getting any additional funding. Also concerned about the 1/12th advance payment issue at the last minute, very little time to discuss what it would mean to have a unit rate. Chair Wegleitner clarified its a cost based reimbursement.
- I spoke to amendments about an overflow homeless shelter and land for people to sleep lawfully because there is no legal place to exist!
- Supervisor Yogesh Chawla – Budget is expression of our values. The 4% cut is an additional cut beyond the original 4%, people will be losing jobs. Homeless services has disproportionate issues in the district, people are being criminalized. We need to stick to our commitment to fund Bartillon Shelter and that is not adequate, we really need 24/7 and overflow capacity. Funding is coming from vacant positions, have been vacant a long time, no loss of jobs. Need to invest in Affordable Housing and space where homeless neighbors have a safe place to sleep at night, we need to fund people. Says there are Conservation Funds that weren’t even asked for (asked for $5M and got $10M) when there $11M in carry over.
- Riley – Spoke to reconsideration of Dairy Drive. Spoke very fast and I missed a lot, it was off topic, but they thoroughly trashed Madison Street Medicine.
- Mia McNair – Anesis Therapy – Mental Health Clinic with AODA services. Three programs funded fully by county. Has 70 employees, economy is bad right now and they deserve to keep their jobs and know what their pay will be. Also spoke to 1/12th payment method, a huge change in stressful time. There will be fewer therapist and increased wait lists.
OPERATING BUDGET AMENDMENT DISCUSSION
Chair Wegleitner explained this was the second of three meetings on budget. Still time to get budget amendments in for the supervisors. They will vote next Wednesday at 5:30. Supervisors need to provide offsets for any increases in funding.
HHN-O-01 – Increase GPR expenditures by $2,175,481 to reverse the 4% reduction to purchase of service agencies.
Chair Heidi Wegleitner explained this amendment reverses the 4% cut. Our community partners testified, they are already hurting from other cuts and will be hurting even if this amendment succeeds because the department budget already made cuts. This is about the least we can do in a challenging budget year to mitigate the impact on the services – which is compounded across the system. It impacts the end user and the workers and the organizational capacity. The offset is 16 vacant deputy positions. They are the highest cost vacant positions. These vacancies have been over 30 since last year’s budget. This funding needs to go to vital services, and they need more than this, and its absolutely essential. If this amendment passes and is adopted, it would be in the department request column, it doesn’t undo other cuts proposed by the department, just the additional cuts of 4% across the board. Supervisors are invited to be a co-sponsor as well.
Supervisor Welsh thanks the speakers, she did sign on as a co-sponsor. She was concerned when she saw the 4% cut, the organizations provide essential services and they are already struggling with loss of funds from COVID and this is an unstable uncertain time. What we will get from the federal government is all in question. This could be the thread that pulls the entire safety net apart. This amendment is in line with our values of making it through the next few years.
HHN-O-02 – Increase expenditures by $900,000 to provide additional funding for the Bartillon Mens Shelter and add the following language to 2025 RES-174: “The operating budget includes $1,146,963 to assist the City of Madison with the operational costs at the new Bartillon Men’s Shelter. The intergovernmental agreement to deliver these funds to the city and to set terms, including but not limited to policies and procedures related to shelter operations and services, shall require the approval of the County Board including the Health and Human Needs Committee.” Further, the Porchlight-Shelter Operations and Men’s Shelter GPR lines should be removed from Appendix A.
Chair Heidi Wegleitner explained that the County helped with capital funding for the new shelter as well as the operating costs. This committee has gotten several presentations on the first purpose built shelter. She talked about how the church basements were not accessible or acceptable. More space was needed during the pandemic. They put a lot of effort into making a trauma informed shelter. This funding will go a long way to get to 24/7 shelter. That is essential so people aren’t booted out during the day and will alleviate the demand on the Beacon. It will also allow people to connect with service providers during daytime hours. It will help shorten the time people experience houselessness and be housing focused. The city has put in $1.5M for operations and $200,000 toward maintenance and other operating expenses since they are the owner of the building. The shelter friends group is also doing private fundraising. The $900,000 will help close the gap. However, we did hear about some draft policies and procedures that are concerning. We don’t have any agreement about how the shelter program will operate. That part is key to this budget amendment because we are contributing significant funds, about $1.5M, that is matching the city. Because we are contributing a significant amount, we need to make sure evidence based practices are used. We need to make sure there is an intergovernmental agreement that the county board will approve to make sure there are minimum policies and procedures and protections. This will be an ongoing partnership and the shelter is expected to open in 2026. This provides that funding but with the understanding that we will work on the policies and procedures. The private sector will also have to step up. When talking about basic needs like shelter we have a responsibility and this is a life saving measure. This is funded through 7 vacant positions in the sheriff’s office. She asks people to see the email from Alder Carmella Glenn, please read it and her blog post.
HHN-O-03 – Increase expenditures by $600,000 outreach and potential overflow shelter operations and add the following language to 2025 RES-174: “The operating budget includes $600,000 for homeless outreach and potential shelter overflow operations. These funds will be awarded by the Department of Human Services through an request for proposal process. A draft RFP(s) will be presented to the Health and Human Needs Committee for its reveiw and input. Any contract(s) resulting from the RFP award will be subject to approval by the County Board, including the Health and Human Needs Committee.”
Chair Wegleitner explained this is the funding to address the gaps due to capacity limitations with the new shelter. There is a hard cap based on fire code of 250 guests for overnight. There is no flex during winter months. In the past there were overflow spaces and no one was turned away. It was not designed for overflow in this city planned project. We need that overflow shelter, this is a bare bones amount, she is hoping they can bring other resources to this. This is a pack in pack out, sleeping bag in a space. Not the type of shelter program we see now, this is a survival shelter. I don’t love that, I don’t like that, we obviously have severe budget constraints, but we need a space and someone to run it. There is a need for additional outreach services now, but we will need this overflow capacity in the winter months, this is for a bare bones survival operation. This is about saving lives and limbs. It’s funded with 5 FTE positions. That is a total of 28 positions. PP&J is meeting across the hall. There are still 9 vacant positions after these 28, this is not all of the positions. There is sill an immigration social worker and some ADRC positions that folks are interested in restoring. The County Executive budget also cut positions within the Human Services Department.
Chair Wegleitner asks if there are any other comments. Or other amendments people want to prioritize. No comments.
HHN – C-01 – Increase expenditures and borrowing proceeds by $10 million in the Affordable Housing Development Fund.
Chair Wegleitner explained this is $10M in the Affordable Housing Fund, this would make it the same amount as in 2025. They awarded $25M this year because they had some money come back to them. This would continue the successful program. They will soon be looking at the 2025 awards, not all projects were funded and not all funded projects got what they asked for. $20M is probably not enough but still gives us a competitive process and helps us maximize our goals of lower income units, screening criteria and set aside units for coordinated entry. In 2025 about half will include permanent affordability.
HHN – C – 02 – Increase expenditures and borrowing proceeds by $2 million to provide funding, through an agreement with the Dane County Housing Authority, to loan funds to non-profit affordable and supportive housing providers to improve accessibility in older affordable housing units.
Chair Wegleitner explained this is $2M for accessibility for senior apartments. This one is to increase the number of accessible units for people with physical disabilities, especially in affordable housing stock at nonprofits. They operate scattered site rental units and many are built in the 50s and 60s and they are not accessible. They have narrow doors, steps and other accessibility issues. Supervisor Doolen and Hueselman are sponsors. She was informed today they may not be able to do this as drafted, we may have to work through some issues. There is no written opinion from Corp Counsel and she wants to make sure they can do something in the future if they can’t do this with capital borrowing at this time. Chuck Hicklin (Finance Department) is reaching out to bond counsel to get more details. They do rental rehab through other funds, so she is seeking clarification.
HHN – C – 03 – Increase expenditures and borrowing proceeds by $2 million to allow for the purchase of land in Dane County to establish grounds for lawful sleeping options for unhoused persons.
Chair Wegleitner explained this is to give us some flexibility and borrowing authority if we can find a suitable property. There is no operating funds at this time. This has been an ongoing need since before she was on the board. They did a report on county properties and none of the properties were suitable, so this is money for them to look for a place. When the new shelter opens there will be more unsheltered people next summer and I don’t know where they are going to go and we need to figure out some solutions. This will enable the first step towards the solution – to find property to have a parking lot, electricity and bathrooms. We will need funding for services which are not proposed at this time, its a first step. At this point the city has not agreed to convey the Dairy Drive campground site for this purpose. We will need to work closely with the city on this. This funding is just to acquire land.
PUBLIC PROTECTION AND JUDICIARY
I missed the first 25 minutes of the meeting. When I arrived they were still doing public testimony. There were two speakers on the first amendments and I spoke to amendments 2, 3 and 4. They said there were about 40 people in support or opposed to various amendments.
I left early and missed the further discussion on Detox so I could get to the PP&J meeting.
PP&J – O – 02 – Reduce expenditures by $2,244,047 by elimination of 16.0 FTE vacant Deputy l-ll positions (415, 423, 424, 433, 457, 597, 604, 627, 1769, 1776, 1936, 1939, 1957, 2453, 2547, 2604) in various programs within the Sheriff Dept.
PP&J – O – 03 – Reduce expenditures by $917,694.88 by elimination of 7.0 FTE vacant Deputy l-ll positions (2307, 2852, 1924,435, 482, 1777, 2389) in various programs within the Sheriff Dept. This amendment is proposed as an offset to amendment HHN-O-02 which increases funding to operating the city’s men’s shelter.
PP&J – O – 04 – Reduce expenditures by $597,000 by elimination of 5.0 FTE vacant Deputy l-ll positions (429, 636, 1994, 639, 3079) in various programs within the Sheriff Dept. This amendment is proposed as an offset to amendment HHN-O-03.
Yogesh Chawla explained that all departments had to have a 4% cut, the sheriff did not make that cut, the County Executive did not make that cut. The Health and Human Needs Department made challenging cuts and then the County Executive cut them another 4%. We need to follow the budget guidance, you should not be rewarded for not following the guidance. There are no sheriff deputies losing their jobs, but the nonprofit workers will be losing their jobs. The sheriff hasn’t been filling these vacant positions. The needs the funding is going to are vitally important. We made a commitment to Bartillion shelter. If you look at what is going in at the Beacon and the Social Justice Center who stepped in on an emergency basis – people have no place to go. And the shelter is not going to be large enough. The sheriff did not do the work that should have been done, and if its not done, we need to do that as elected officials.
Supervisor Weigand asks who responds to District 6 when they call 911. Chawla says police, fire or ambulance. In addition to that, they have had calls to the Social Justice Center, he has met with the police and the community and those first responders are responding. He requested a detailed call log and they are looking at that data. Weigand says that the Sheriff, outside of the jail, serves communities that are not served bu municipalities . . . and they start talking over each other and arguing about who can say what when.
Weigand says he is not surprised, its always from the city of Madison and supervisors supported by a municpal agency that make these cuts. It’s frustrating when his constituents ..(missed some) …. its always defund the police. Why don’t we look at other positions, why aren’t we looking at non-sworn positions or positions at the Zoo or other agencies that are not statutorily required, that is the first place to look, look at the luxuries, not the necessities. This is not fluffy animals at the zoo, but people who put their lives on the lines every day to protect our citizens. We are funding all kinds of stupid stuff at that zoo, so seals don’t have to squint at the sun. Our priorities are backwards, its not surprising this is coming form Madison, we need to put our foot down and say enough is enough. We need to reject this ludicrous position, we can’t cut 6% of our positions, he urges them to wake up and that this is the absolute worst thing we can do.
Chair Andrae asks the sheriff to present the staffing data. She asks him to explain the spreadsheet that went to the committee to adjustthe DOA chart, she asks him to share the new data.
Kalvin Barrett says that the team looked at the numbers and their numbers are different and don’t match what the DOA sent out. The info was sent to the chair. He says that in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 they have different numbers than the DOA in the number of hires and separations. But they have the same numbers for 2025. He just wants to make sure people have the correct information. The chart was forwarded to the full county board. They will attach it so the public can have the info in the future.
There were multiple questions back and forth with the sheriff and here is a summary of what we learned.
- They have 31 total positions vacant, 13 are pre-hires and 17 are vacant positions.
- A pre-hire is funded at 50% for 6 months and it is funding for the 6-8 months it takes to hire someone and while they are in training for a year. It keeps people in the process. 911 communications also uses this process and it is often used to deal with retirements.
- The 13 pre-hires are not people at this time. They are just held for potential people. Technically it is an open position. So there are 31 open positions.
- Sheriff says they are hiring 5 people next week and they have 19-21 candidates going through the process. Later he says there are 17 people going through the process.
- The 5 people they are hiring next week have done an application, taken a writtentest, had panel interview, background check, medical check, psych check and an interview before being offered the position and 5 have accepted the position.
- Background checks take 1-2 months, they have 3 background investigators who investigate and they sometimes find things or people get arrested during the process, so they do thorough background checks to hire the best. Pre-hires are needed so people don’t move on during the lengthy process.
- In1994 when they opened the public safety building they hired 100 deputies and they are retiring now, leaving to get out of the profession.
- They are hiring a consultant to help them attract candidates, they started a cadet program 16- 20 year old to start recruiting. They are also doing an internship program for bachelor degree studenst in college.
- They determine how many deputies they need in the field by staffing and call studies. The jail positions are constitutionally required and have ratios.
- They also have positions that are contract deputies, mental health and community deputies. The community deputies are contracted by towns and they don’t make a profit off those contracts like other sheriff departments in Wisconsin do. They also provide sheriff deputies for the airport if they need more coverage.
Wegleiter was able to speak when the HHN meeting concluded.
4% cut – She says that they have heard in September, in emails and tonight that our nonprofit partners are struggling, there are increased needs, decreased funding everywhere, they are laying off staff, cutting wages and decreasing services. These amendments are about mitigating the disproportionate impact of balancing the budget on Human Services, Human Services hit their 4% target and they got hit again and again and again. That doesn’t fit our values. This is about making this really bad on the brink situation better – they can’t take more hits. It’s the least we can do, address the 4% cut, it doesn’t address concern with 1/12 proposal, or the other cuts that were made to meet the 4%. If we have funding in one department that is not being utilized it makes no sense that we wouldn’t use it to serve the people that need to be served to reduce the already severe cuts agencies are facing with the loss of federal funding and private donations. We heard about the rippling impact of it, you should have gotten an email about how the department request impacts the agency and there are even more cuts in the County Execs budget. When you think of 100s of contracts and all the people served by the providers it is very detrimental and it has rippling effects. Homeless services are overburdened, DAIS and RISE, it ripples for the families and the employees. This is about fairness in budgeting and making it less detrimental to our most vulnerable community members. We can’t do human services without these contracts, we need to give them increases, this is just decreasing the decrease.
Shelter – The offsets for homeless services funding, this isn’t addressing the gaps, the gaps are big, its about emergency needs, saving lives, the need for shelter. The 7 positions to provide $900,000 to close the gap on the 24/7 shelter, with the private secotor we can ensure it can open and operate. It matters for the people that will use the shelter and our jail has a lot of people who are unsheltered who are being brought by Madison police to the jail on disorderly conduct charges. We have a report about these bookings. That is not how we should be serving people, this is not what our jail is for, these are not criminals, they are not even being charged. The police bring them there to solve a problem. The trauma informed shelter is a more evidence based way of serving this population’s needs instead of having them cycle in and out of the jail. That is worth 7 vacant deputy positions to have the first purpose built shelter.
Overflow Shelter – The other amendment is for a basic, bare bones overflow shelter – its 5 vacant deputy positions to fund saving lives. These are public safety amendments and the needs are so significant and this is the most basic bare bones minimum provision to do in a difficult budget year. She understands there has been talk about competing pieces of information about vacancies and staffing and hiring. The amendments were drafted by Hicklin with the most recent vacancy list available to him. Her original draft had more deputies, they reduced the number by looking for the ones that cost more. It’s really important that sacrifice is shared across the county and we protect our most vulnerable community members who will have services taken away. Lives are literally on the line, people will freeze to death when they don’t have a place to go, they will cycle in and out of the jail – instead we can stop the cycle of criminalization, homelessness, poverty and do it in an evidence based away. There are vacant positions, human services department has been hit so many times.
Weglietner answers a questions and explains that when the Barillon Shelter opens, the Zeier Rd/Savers Building will be available for overflow. They thought it would be for Salvation Army but it won’t be a need this next winter 2026-2027 due to funding. That space would be available. City staff and the mayor have been talked to about using this space. Wegliether talked to staff and they talked a very bare bones survival operation, sleeping bags in a safe warm space, donated food, etc. Not the same level of meal provision, beds, etc. Its overflow survival pack in, pack out, probably run by an outreach program. Hopefully there will be other partners. It’s basically for winter months only. It’s an overnight warming shelter. There are still 9 vacant deputies after these amendments.
Weigand says its hard to take author seriously, we have tons of non-profits that that make tons of money, grifting off the tax payers. Urban Triage director gets paid $292,000 per year – so don’t talk to me about how they are struggling. They are making more money than the County Exec or governor. That is not all of them, there are some good ones out there. The first place we should look for cuts is the is the HHN budget, I could come up with millions of dollars in savings. Some of them are not suffering, they have beautiful offices around the square and all over Dane County. We should start there, not with the sheriff’s office.
Furman says that he takes our job very seriously, he got emails that we don’t care about public safety, there is more than one definition of public safety. We do need to look at the programs that deal with our public safety. The money we are giving to the shelter in the executive budget is not enough, we know people throughout Dane County and the State will use the facility, if it is underfunded, we will have a ton of more problems and issues. The amendment is the least we can do, we are not firing people, they are vacant positions, every other department had to eliminate vacant positions and meet the 4% cut and for some reason the sheriff’s department didn’t.
They will vote on these amendments next Tuesday.